TR - Mongenevre "en famille" at Half Term 10th - 17th Feb 2018

A snowHead

Where: Montgenevre, France

When: 10th – 17th Feb 2018

How: Jet2 from Manchester to Turin. Transfer to MontyG via “Go Montgenevre”. MMV Hameau des Airelles apartment. Ski hire via Intersport. All booked direct online, as were lift passes.

How much: £1600 for flights. E1800 for apartment. E1100 for skis and passes.

Why: We’d done Half Term at MontyG three years ago and really enjoyed the town, the skiing, the lack of queues and the short transfers, so why not go for a repeat?

Day -1: Grim slog over the Pennines to Manchester after school. Even grimmer dining experience at the Heald Green Beefeater. It is walkable from the Heald Green Premier Inn but otherwise has nothing to recommend it. Premier Inn was OK though a little tired.

Day 0 part 1: 430am start, drive to airport multistory where the ANPR was working, despite a decidedly grubby reg plate! Novel touch at check-in as we weighed and labelled our own bags. Lots of helpful Jet2 staff on hand, as usual. Had I been one of them, I’d have been less helpful as presumably once the self-weigh process is bedded in, they won’t have a job. Security and walking through duty free were their usual time-consuming selves, but there was still sufficient time to partake of more low-grade chow in a restaurant whose name I genuinely can’t remember. Uneventful flight to Turin, rendezvous made with bags and transfer coach for a further uneventful journey to MontyG itself. The driver was allegedly Italian but drove very conservatively. Once in MontyG, we transferred to a Go Montegenvre car for the final few hundred yards to the apartment.

Day 0 part 2: It was circa 1pm by this point and too early to check in, so what better to fill the time than making use of our free extra half day of lift pass and ski hire? Well in my case, there was a frantic search of luggage and a brief shopping trip to deal with Younger Miniplough’s “epic fail” on the salopette packing front! Mrs Plough and Elder Miniplough managed a good couple of hours on piste, with Younger Miniplough and me managing but one run down before the lifts shut. As penance for forgetting her kit, Younger Miniplough was condemned to walk through town back to our apartment in ski boots as the lift servicing the run to our boot room shut before we even set off.

The apartment: We’d booked a six person apartment, which is comfortably big enough for four adults. It would have been a tight fit for six. Facilities were what you’d expect from a 4* place including the obligatory exceptionally uncomfortable sofa. With a few beers on board, it was just comfortable enough to spend the evenings watching some of the Miniploughs’ extensive collection of Netflix downloads. The only real downside was the very thin walls from one apartment to the next, meaning that we all got to share each other’s pre and post skiing traumas, even if the fine details were lost in translation. Fortunately, no-one in the vicinity was into any partying, so it was a pretty quiet week in general. There is a small pool in the apartment building which we didn’t use and a laundry room which we did. From bootroom to piste was a mere 90 paces in skiboots, with the same journey on the way back. Not quite “ski in, ski out” but pretty close! Free WiFi too, which was just about adequate for the whole building at peak times.

Day 1: As the Miniploughs weren’t having lessons, we allowed ourselves a leisurely start to miss the ski school rush, hitting the snow shortly after 930am. On my way back from the bakers, I saw the usual early morning antics of parents getting their kids ready for ski lessons. Nothing has changed much in this respect from when the Miniploughs really were mini (instead of being exuberant kids trapped inside adult-sized bodies) and the thought again struck me that a passing stranger might well think that a family ski holiday was in fact some form of punishment for both parents and children!

Days 1-6: In skiing terms, all days were pretty much the same. 2-3 hours before lunch, a long lunch break and then another 2-3 hours in the afternoon, usually being on our last lift just before it shut. We’d planned on going over to Italy as we’d enjoyed our one day of doing this last time, but the high level route was shut and we were having too much fun on the French side to bother with the low level route over there which looked like it involved a lot of poling.

The skiing: The snow on the first 4 days was fantastic. There was a lot of it and the temperatures were well below freezing, so it stayed in top condition all day. It was fair bit warmer on the last 2 days, with slush on the lower / south facing slopes in the afternoon. It’s fair to say that the piste skiing is not particularly challenging, which is great for me, as it meant I could just about keep up, particularly if everyone else stopped to wait. We didn’t venture off piste as the Miniploughs kept dragging us off to the snowparks, border crosses and natural half pipes. I’d hired all mountain skis and I can confirm that I was equally inept on all types of terrain, so the skis certainly lived up to their description. Other than the Sunday where the Italians were out in good number, other than the odd mistimed arrival at draglifts, the biggest queue I encountered all week was for the “facilities” at the Café le Graal one lunchtime! The lift system is just on the OK side of functional, though a couple of faster chairs here and there wouldn’t go amiss. On the penultimate morning, we let the Miniploughs go off on their own, as the Elder variant is now getting very sensible and whilst the Younger variant has virtually no common sense, she does at least know to follow her sister. There were regular text updates (including a few selfies, obviously) and when we made our rendezvous at the apartment for lunch, they’d set the table and cooked the pizza slices! They stayed with us the next morning as they weren’t confident of finding their way to the Café le Graal unaided and they did not want to run the risk of missing out on burgers for lunch!

Go Pro humiliation #1: We brought our Go Pro with us, having trialled it mountain biking last summer. As Tail End Charlie, I was appointed as Go Pro Man on Day 1. The problem with this was that I struggled to get close enough for any of the others to be identifiable in the footage. So after many minutes of footage of blue sky, snow, trees and other folks’ kids, I was summarily sacked as Go Pro Man with Mrs Plough taking over on subsequent days.

Go Pro humiliation #2: On the evening of Day 2, we settled down for a well-deserved post-ski bevy in the apartment to view the day’s footage. It all started well, with plenty of action shots of the Miniploughs. But then things started to go wrong. Firstly, some uncoordinated lump wearing a jacket just like mine came into camera shot, disrupting my viewing pleasure by doing odd things with his backside and shoulders. Secondly, the Miniploughs claimed this was me. How could this be? It is well known in many mountain ranges that I am but a couple of technical issues short of being Hermann Maier’s body double. To make matters worse, my new helmet appears to focus on function rather than aesthetics and said jacket was bulked out with numerous items in the pockets. It’s fair to say that skiing in the toilet position whilst impersonating an overweight Robocop is not a good look. So I made sure I skied well behind Mrs Plough on Days 3 onwards!

Redemption: Whilst being bad skiing has its downsides, it does consume a lot of calories if concerted efforts are made to keep up with the good skiers in the party. Thus, I won the competition for minimum weight gain during the holiday. In fact, I may even have lost the odd 0.1kg!

Ou est Didier? On our last visit to MontyG, Younger Miniplough was taught by a guy called Didier, who still has legendary status in our house due to his enthusiasm and his ability to talk the ESF Patron into awarding a gold star when the youngster had marginally failed the speed test. Despite concerted eyeballing of all the instructors’ name badges, we did not find Didier either on piste or in the Café le Graal “after hours” which was a bit of a disappointment as it would have been nice to say hello to him.

Food: We dined out at a couple of places: U Cintu in the evening and Café le Graal for lunch. Both ticked our boxes in terms of quality and service. The former was circa E90 for drinks, mains and puddings. The latter circa E70 for drinks and main. The burgers at le Graal are worth the trip on their own! The Miniploughs are well past the age of looking particularly cute, but they still got a smile and a massive serving of whippy cream on their chocolates when they ordered the drinks in their best schoolgirl French. When dining in, we made use of the various deli counters in town for lasagne, meat balls, chickens etc. Microwave popcorn in the apartment was a big hit.

The return: Unlike last time when we were badly let down by our private transfer, the Go Mongenevre minibus arrived bang on schedule for yet another uneventful journey to Turin and thence to Manchester where once again, the ANPR worked and exit from the car park was a doddle, which hasn’t always been the case! Despite a dismal drive via numerous detours round road closures, we were still home in time to run the washer 4 times by bedtime. As always, the disappointment of a ski holiday ending is offset by being able to rest our aching bones on our own sofa before retiring to our own bed.

Summary: Great holiday! I don’t think we’ll be going back skiing to MontyG next year, as Elder Miniplough wants to go to Austria so she can practice her GCSE German and our HT appears to clash with a very busy week for French holidays.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Think I've said it before but I'll repeat again: love reading your TRs. Great turn of phrase.

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Thank you both!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Excellent report @The Flying Snowplough, thanks. We're off there in a couple of weeks, same apartments.

"piste skiing is not particularly challenging" sounds perfect for me Very Happy

Will be checking out your food recommendations as well.

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@Jeraff, just be wary of the half pipes. They're innocuously easy to enter but have a certain Mafia-like aspect when trying to leave!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

@The Flying Snowplough, really good read. Thanks for sharing. It is interesting to compare the cost you paid with ours in Sweden.

After all it is free

@The Flying Snowplough, Noted Laughing

@NickyJ, I'd just done the same thing re our respective costs! HT in France, or at least flying there is certainly not the cheapest way to go skiing...

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@NickyJ, we got a pretty good deal on lift passes - "only" circa 700 Euros for 6.5 days for the 4 of us. I don't know what kilometerage of piste is claimed, but there's certainly enough to keep a family occupied for a week and we tend to cover a lot of ground.

snow reports

@The Flying Snowplough, were all off you hiring skis then?

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

A snowHead

@The Flying Snowplough, great reading snowHead

Perhaps try the Italian side next year...?

A snowHead

@red 27, we vowed to go to the Italian side every day, but always went for "one run" on the snowpark, bordercross or halfpipe first and by the time we'd had "just one more, Dad" it was usually time to go home so we never quite made it!

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Excellent update - many thanks. We did Austria this half term (Obertauern) and are considering Montgenevre next HT. Interested when you say you think the French school holiday coincides with ours. That would seal the seal for us not going. I’m allergic to queues!!

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UK half term always coincides with one of the four French weeks (though when it coincides with a Paris week that's the worst...).

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

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@bambionskiis, we had French zone A and Belgian holidays w/c 10th Feb and queues were minimal. I think that if you avoid Paris week you'll be ok.

Our HT starts 23rd Feb next year which is Paris week so we're planning Obertaun!

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

That’s spooky, doing the reverse to us!!

Ive just checked and you’ll miss the Fasching Week in Austria on that date next year, so you won’t get hit with the high prices we did (wish I’d researched that before booking!!!). Having said that there weren’t many queues at all even though it was a holiday week. The lifts are very fast and efficient.

By the sound of it we’ll be lucky too in that case because ours is 16 Feb next year so that’s looking hopeful. I’m hoping to try and regain some self confidence (and dignity!) next year by putting myself back into ski school as I just lost it this year for some reason. I need to nail my technique to feel safer I think. I’m hoping that some of the greens (don’t laugh) in Montgenevre can help with that.

After all it is free

Although we get some Parisians, Montgenevre isn't generally fashionable enough for them.

Also, as there are only 4,500 beds in resort, it doesn't matter who is on holiday, queues are not really a problem.

Help!!

TR - Mongenevre "en famille" at Half Term 10th - 17th Feb 2018

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